


You spin me right round, baby

by hoodedmiho (missMHO)



Series: coins, conflicts, and coffee [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: First Kiss, Gavin has more issues than National Geographic, Gavin is frustrated (sexually and in general), M/M, Post-Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), RK900 and Gavin are partners at DPD, RK900’s name is Richard, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-09 05:48:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16444043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missMHO/pseuds/hoodedmiho
Summary: Five times Gavin hated his partner’s damned coin tricks and one time he liked it too much.





	You spin me right round, baby

**Author's Note:**

> I read one (1) Reed/900 fic out of curiosity about fanon RK900 a couple of weeks ago and now I can’t escape this gorbage ship（￣ε￣）  
> [My friend here](https://twitter.com/ORAJONPax) is entirely to blame for this, we did a DBH playthrough marathon and kept talking about Connor’s coin and then came up with ways that RK900 can piss Gavin off with one… And here we are now.  
> Special thanks for [thekasialin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thekasialin), [kasssumi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kasssumi), and [darca](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darca) who took a look at it to check whether it's not a total disaster. I'm not a native speaker so I apologise for any mistakes that even my degree in English linguistics couldn’t help with XD  
> 

**[1]**

Life is ironic, Gavin thinks as he keeps observing Anderson’s and his partner’s desks. He and  Hank were the biggest android haters in the precinct once upon a time. Now, they are the only ones with android partners in DPD and, after some _really_ bumpy starts, it’s actually working out quite well.

Gavin’s career is the most important thing in his life and the arrival of detective androids was an obvious threat. But after being partnered with one, Gavin learnt that while RK900 still wasn't able to fully replace human insight on a crime scene, the upgrades he's equipped with do speed things up. As long as the overall effect is adding to Gavin's efficiency in the field and, thus, is pushing him up the career ladder, he’s ready to accept the current situation. For now.

Richard is talking with Connor right now as he and Gavin are both waiting for documents to be delivered from the archive and Gavin decided to use it as a coffee break. It’s still a little bit weird seeing them next to each other. They’re almost identical except for RK900’s bright steel eyes and broader build, but they’ve both started developing their own clothing styles over time – Richard going for all black and well-fitted clothes while Connor leaned towards white business shirts with colourful ties (an almost adorable homage to Hank’s disastrous fashion sense). Then, of course, as soon as they open their mouths, you have no problem to tell the one from the other. Gavin smirks into his coffee as he thinks about how Richard manages to be both stoic and sharp-tongued while Connor is still like a curious puppy even though he’s the one who’s been deviant for longer. Well, at least, in this whole bizarre situation that was their lives right now, he got the more tolerable RK.

Gavin watches as Connor takes out his coin, the one Hank keeps complaining about loudly and explicitly, and starts showing some tricks to Richard. Gavin keeps observing as the coin rolls over the android's knuckles and then he throws it swiftly from hand to hand. The more he stares at the glinting silver, the more he understands why Hank is so irritable about this thing. Then Connor hands the coin to the other android.

Richard tries to mimic Connor’s knuckle trick, but he fails quite miserably. Gavin snorts into his coffee, amused, as the coin falls to the ground.

It's still interesting to see an android fail at anything. Before the revolution, they all were these perfect beings that did everything better than humans. Once deviancy spread, androids started doing tasks they were not designed to do and it turned out they're not so flawless. Richard told him once that he enjoys learning new skills gradually instead of just downloading software intended for other models, it's stimulating to his systems and, well, he simply gets bored sometimes.

Now, Connor is encouraging Richard to keep trying, even though so far the RK900 is not improving with following attempts at doing any tricks. There's a line forming between his eyebrows as he stares intently at the coin. Never before had Gavin seen him look so much like a grumpy puppy, it's usually Connor's thing.

Gavin laughs briefly at his own thoughts. He has seen Richard snap a man's neck with one smooth motion once and now he's comparing the android to a puppy.

Just as he takes the last sip of his coffee, Emily from the archive approaches his desk to hand him the documents he requested earlier. He nods at her as a _thank you_ and yells in the direction of Connor’s desk: “Richard, get your robot ass here.”

The android joins him shortly but Connor’s coin is still in his hand – and in the centre of his attention. Gavin sighs.

“Is annoying-your-partner-with-coin-tricks some type of default setting for your model?” he murmurs.

“Connor recommended me this as an exercise,” Richard offers in response. Usually when he’s explaining anything to Gavin, his voice is patient with a hint of _you’re a moron but it's okay_. Now he seems mostly distracted. “We sometimes get overwhelmed when processing data, this may help in recalibration.”

“I imagine you should actually _do it properly_ for it to work, not just find a hundred ways it can idiotically fall to the ground,” he grins teasingly. Richard looks up from the coin and turns his frown at Gavin. Then he pockets the coin.

“Did we get all the documents we requested?” he changes the subject. Gavin lets that one slip, they really need to get back to work.

 

 

**[2]**

The coin makes an appearance again two days later.

After they pursued the clue they found in the archive documents, Gavin and Richard spent the following thirty six hours working towards the location of their suspect and somehow ended the case with a successful arrest and quick confession. Unfortunately, Gavin didn't get a chance to fully sleep it off so he gets to work grumpier than usual. Richard is already at his desk but as they haven't been assigned a new case yet, he's playing with the coin Connor gave him.

Once he reaches his desk, Gavin eyes the coin as if it offended him. Richard freezes, the silver glinting between his fingers.

“I'm too tired for this,” Gavin murmurs to himself as he drapes his jacket over his chair and walks to the break room for some coffee. When he comes back, Richard is back to his coin practice. He’s a bit better than the last time Gavin has seen him doing it, when it just kept slipping from his fingers, but he’s still far from Connor’s skill.

Gavin starts up his terminal and gets to tidying up his desktop, deleting redundant files that he downloaded for cases that are now closed and done. He’s waiting for a document to open to check what it is, since he was genius enough to name it “sdfgjgn” before, when he sees something fly by in his peripheral vision. He manages to just turn his head towards the movement to get an impressive splash of coffee directly onto his face.

He wipes his eyes with the back of his hand and instinctively turns his glare at Richard. The android's frozen on the spot, his hand stuck lifted above the desk in a position that undoubtedly indicates that Gavin doesn’t have to fish in his coffee to know that it’s a coin sunk at the bottom of his mug. Richard's eyes are wide with shock and that look on a normally composed android would make Gavin laugh, if only he wasn't so pissed.

“I'll tear your fucking wires out!” he yells as he gets up to walk around their desks to get his hands on the android. Richard unfreezes from his bewilderment just in time to turn in his chair and grab Gavin's fists as they get dangerously close to the android's face. Of course, he manages to keep Gavin's hands away from himself without much effort, despite the human’s struggle. He’s used to Gavin’s outbursts by now, though they had become less frequent compared to the beginning of their partnership.

“Believe me, Detective, I thought many times of pouring your damn coffee over your head but this instance was a mere accident. I apologize.”

Gavin stops trying to punch Richard in the face, seeing how pointless his attempts at wrestling out of the android’s grip are, but he’s still not done with being pissed.

“If that coin gets anywhere near me again I will shove it up your ass!”

Richard just slowly raises one of his perfect eyebrows, obviously unimpressed by Gavin’s threat. Well, he knows it really didn’t sound that intimidating, but he’s tired, okay? He only managed to drink a bit of his coffee before Richard started throwing unsanitary things into it.

“Gavin! Richard!” Fowler’s voice startles Gavin and the android smirks, that asshole. “Get in my office once you finish whatever this is you’re doing.”

Richard finally lets his wrists go and Gavin takes a step back. He lets out a last frustrated huff in the direction of the android and turns to walk vigorously towards the Captain’s office. He hears Richard following but doesn’t spare him another glance.

Their new case is highly sensitive and Fowler gives them a brief but very pressuring speech about how they can’t fuck it up. Gavin literally bites the inside of his cheek not to talk back how they indeed usually don’t give their best whenever there are people’s lives at stake and that they truly need to be reminded what their job is about.

After the case assignment, Fowler asks Gavin to stay a little longer while Richard goes to already start working on the case. Sometimes Gavin himself forgets that Richard is still on probation and Gavin's opinion as his partner actually counts. Despite his frustrations about the android in general, he can’t say a bad word about Richard when it comes to detective work itself. He still lacks field experience and human perspective sometimes, but these are mistakes that everyone does at the beginning.

By the time he finishes with Fowler, he almost forgets he was on the verge of punching walls out of anger before the meeting. Unfortunately, the closer he gets to his desk, the more irritated he becomes at the thought of remaking his coffee and fishing a coin from the bottom of the mug. He starts plotting a revenge plan – what to do with the coin once he’ll have it in his hands, but when he arrives at his desk, there’s a fresh mug of coffee waiting on his worn out “John Wick” coaster and the coin is laying next to Richard’s terminal.

Gavin eyes the coffee warily but he decides that this was the least the android could have done to make up for the earlier fuck up so in the end he just goes with it. He takes a sip from the mug cautiously and finds with a surprise that it’s exactly how he likes it – double espresso, no sugar, and 1/3 almond milk. For a second he has a mental image of Richard putting fingers in his coffee and tasting it like he does with the crime scene samples but then he immediately tries _not_ to think about it.

When he looks up at the android, Richard seems so smug that Gavin has a brief urge to dramatically pour the whole mug into the nearest trash can, but it’s good coffee and he really needs it to go through this day.

“Okay, so what have we got?” he asks pointedly, indicating that the coin vs. coffee subject is closed for now, and Richard starts briefing him on the case.

 

 

**[3]**

It becomes a constant background thing, following how Richard progresses in his coin mastery. Then, after a particularly tiring but really successful closed case that earns them a day off, Gavin comes to work to witness Richard doing the tricks as skillfully as Connor, the coin smoothly moving over his fingers and from hand to hand. He must have spent his free time on intense training with that thing – Gavin, the miserable human that he is, ended up so tired after the case that he even refused celebratory drinks with Tina. He slept for 12 hours straight and then spent the rest of the day lounging in sweatpants and doing a marathon of Keanu Reeves movies (yes, this is Gavin treating himself, that man was his gay awakening, okay?!).

Gavin finds himself wondering about androids’ lives quite often recently. He spent so many years regarding them as machines that are as sentient as his roomba but things changed… The whole thing with demonstrations and them getting shot by police just for trying to start a dialogue – it was a big slap in the face, Gavin has to admit that to himself. But his old prejudices ( _so much older_ than anyone could even suspect) couldn’t be erased just like that by Markus’ words. But then came his partnership with Richard and suddenly he was spending whole days with an android that wouldn’t be pushed around and kept up with his banter and sometimes behaved so human that Gavin had to take a series of calming breaths not to punch him in the face for it. Gavin was comfortable in his hatred towards androids, he had his reasons and didn’t feel a need to be proved that his opinions are antiquated. But then RK900 happened and here he is, wondering what androids do in their spare time on his drive to work.

Do they watch movies or play games or read books like humans do? Or can they just download these in an instant and it doesn’t offer the same entertainment? He never bothered to ask any android, obviously, but once the idea dawns on him, he can’t repel it from his mind. Does Richard ever get lonely in the evenings alone in his flat, like Gavin does?

…Okay, that train of thought went into unexpected territory.

Gavin shakes his head at himself as he parks his car. Maybe it’s time for a vacation, a separation from the RKs may do him some good.

He managed to squeeze in a morning run before work and he feels quite invigorated and ready for some action but his partner isn’t at his desk when Gavin enters the station. He looks around confusedly, he’s quite used to Richard already waiting by his terminal when Gavin arrives. He notices Richard by Connor’s desk again, which is his usual hanging out place if he’s not at his place. Gavin takes off his jacket and sits in his chair but his eyes are still observing the androids. They’re playing with their coins again.

Gavin puts his feet up on his desk, crosses his arms over his chest, and just keeps staring, amusedly waiting for Richard to notice him so they can get to work. It seems like the student has outmatched the master because Richard is the one explaining the trick to Connor today, not the other way round. Connor gives it a few tries and Richard keeps encouraging him when the coin doesn’t move as perfectly as when RK800 performs his pre-programmed stunts.

Then Gavin almost falls from his chair when Richard does the disappearing coin trick, the one you usually do to impress children where at the end you find the coin behind the other person’s ear. _Of course_ Connor giggles in response and asks Richard to do it again, like a fucking kid would. The same android Gavin once observed pressure a deviant into confession now beams with wonder at an overrated coin trick. Androids are fucking weird.

He watches as Connor convinces Richard to do the trick on Hank and Gavin can’t wait to see how that goes with the grumpy lieutenant. But to Gavin’s utter surprise, Hank actually humours the RKs. He lets Richard do the trick and then congratulates him on his skill to Connor’s obvious delight.

Gavin sometimes forgets that Hank and Richard knew each other before RK900 joined the DPD. Richard would probably much rather have Hank for a partner if his predecessor hasn’t already taken that position.

Suddenly, Gavin’s good humour turns sour. A treacherous mean voice somewhere in Gavin’s head names the feeling he doesn’t want to acknowledge and he physically grimaces at the thought. He’s absolutely _not_ jealous about Hank’s familiarity with Richard. He would never want Richard to even try to perform any coin tricks on him and be the center of the androids attention for that moment needed to do the stunt. He dictated the professional distance between RK900 and him and that’s how it should stay, just as that damned coin should stay away from him at all times.

Hank’s chuckle brings Gavin out of his thoughts and he looks up back at him automatically. Richard is now half-sitting on the Lieutenant’s desk as they’re casually discussing something and Hank pats the android on his forearm while making some kind of remark. Richard answers with a laugh of his own. The sound hits Gavin like a punch in the chest. It’s a rare sound and still quite mechanical, he realizes suddenly. Did he ever make Richard laugh? He can’t remember.

Swearing under his breath, Gavin takes his feet off the desk and sits normally, turning all his attention towards his terminal. _Fucking androids._

 

 

**[4]**

Gavin’s relationship with Richard’s coin seems to work a lot like his relationship with the android himself. After initial aversion, he comes to tolerate its everyday presence and even finds features to appreciate. For example, the now impeccable coin tricks that Richard indulges with while thinking are a great excuse to stare at the android’s hands – such movement is an obvious magnet for eyes. Some people have these fancy metal balls that knock against each other rhythmically to help them concentrate; Gavin has a coin-fidgeting android with _really_ nice hands that he wouldn’t mind getting more acquainted with.

Okay, maybe it’s actually more distracting than stimulating his focus.

They’re on a missing persons case and Gavin’s eyes are watering with strain after staring at maps for so long. There must be a pattern to the kidnapper’s actions, anything that may lead them towards the suspect himself or at least give them an area where to look out for the next kidnapping and warn people that could be fitting the m.o. Gavin groans into his hands and takes a sip of cold coffee.

“Detective? I think I’ve found something,” Richard’s voice draws Gavin from his momentary stupor. He hopes the android is really onto something because looking at maps is making him dizzy at this point.

Gavin gets up to join Richard by his desk. He has a map of Detroit pulled on his terminal but it looks as if it’s from an old video game, it’s digital and pixelated. After a second, Gavin realizes that this connotation is absolutely correct – in the lower corner there’s a logo of a game he remembers from his teenage years. It’s about a string of murders in Detroit.

“What the fuck?! Is someone seriously recreating a game?” he scoffs in disbelief but Richard knows it’s a rhetorical question and only hums in response. Three of the murder scenes from the game match their kidnapping spots.

“The only issue is that the order of the crimes doesn’t fit,” Richard says, the frustration evident in his voice. He pulls up two windows with text files – a chronological list of the current kidnappings with addresses and a similar list with the murders from the game. For a long moment, they both stare at the screen in concentration, Richard’s coin regularly raising into the air and falling back into his hand.

The idea hits Gavin so suddenly, he knows a bright light bulb would appear out of nowhere above his head if they were in a cartoon. He leans towards Richard’s terminal sharply to point to the particular part that inspired the breakthrough – and it’s the same split second when the android’s coin makes the journey up into the air and it ventures higher than all the times since Gavin took the place beside his partner’s chair. Of course, Richard’s coin and Gavin’s face cross paths somewhere above the android’s desk and the piece of metal hits the human detective right in the eye. That’s just his shitty luck.

“Oh _fuck!!!”_ Gavin yells in pain, recoiling. His hands move instinctively to his face. Gavin’s eye is burning and he already feels the tears running down his right cheek.

“Detective, are you alright?” Richard gets up quickly and stretches his hands towards Gavin. “Let me see if there’s any damage, I can scan…”

Gavin moves his hands away from his injury to wave the android away from him but Richard uses that to his advantage. Suddenly, there are soft hands on both sides of his face, keeping his head in place as piercing grey eyes stare at him worriedly, the android’s LED spinning yellow in the corner of Gavin’s view. Gavin freezes for a moment, his heart pounding from the mix of pain and the unexpected closeness to his partner. The skin on Gavin’s cheeks is burning with heat and it has nothing to do with the injury.

“There doesn’t seem to be any serious damage but–” Richard’s voice seems to break the spell and Gavin takes a step back to escape his touch.

“I can check it myself, get back to work,” Gavin grunts and rushes towards the bathroom without sparing another glance at Richard.

He’s glad that there’s no one else in the men’s bathroom when he barges in, he’s got enough to worry about and doesn’t need any prying eyes. He’s panting as if he ran here, feeling hot and cold at the same time. He’s a mess of pain and whatever was his body’s reaction to the android’s touch. Gavin approaches a sink and rinses his eye, and then washes his whole face with cold water until it starts feeling numb. He closes the tap and looks into the mirror to asses his eye. It’s reddened but it doesn’t sting as much anymore and there doesn’t seem to be anything worrying happening with it. Just like Richard told him after he scanned it…

At that thought alone, Gavin feels his skin once again burn in places where the android touched him. They don’t really touch like this on a daily basis, they nudge one another to get the other’s attention or brush against each other on cramped crimes scenes, but Gavin never really had a chance to feel how soft Richard’s skin is, just a little bit cooler than human’s but still pleasant.  Gavin isn’t an extremely tactile person with strangers and acquaintances but he never reacts like this if… He only reacts like this when…

 _Oh._ He’s _so fucked._

It took him weeks to finally admit to himself that Richard is objectively attractive (how can anyone but Bruce Wayne, who’s a fucking fictional character, pull off a black turtleneck?) but this… This is something else entirely.

Gavin splashes some more cold water on his face for a good measure and takes a deep breath. He’ll deal with this crisis at home with a bottle of something stronger and his cat to cuddle, now he needs to pull himself together and solve a case.

Richard is at his desk when Gavin returns and he gets up with a worried frown on his face when he sees him approaching.

“Is everything alright? I can drive you to a doctor if…”

Gavin waves him off before the android can finish.

“It’s alright, let’s just finish this case because I feel like my eye may actually fall out if I need to look at any more maps.”

Richard snorts and gives him an amused glance and that’s a much better look than that guilty concern. They get back to Richard’s terminal and the damned coin is resting next to it on the desk. Gavin stares at it suspiciously as if it could attack him out of its own volition.

“But seriously, R., control that coin, you could’ve killed me with that,” Gavin knows he’s exaggerating but that’s how he’s chosen to deal with the Richard issue for now – by being his mean teasing self.

“Actually, to kill someone by hitting them in the eye with a piece of metal like this I would have to apply much more force, about–” Richard looks in the distance absently like he usually does when analysing something and Gavin jabs him on the shoulder.

“I really don’t want to know that. Back to the case, you weirdo.”

 

 

**[5]**

Even though Gavin knows Richard has taken a day off, it’s still weird to walk to their desks and don’t see his partner already there. He can’t even deny anymore that he’s actually looking forward to these moments spent with the android.

 _Fuck_ , look at him. Gavin Reed – the resident android hater – pining after his asshole robo-partner.

Gavin sits down at his desk and for a moment he just stares at the empty seat in front of him. It’s the first time that Richard took a day off, he never really had a need for one before. But today it’s the anniversary of death of Anderson’s son and both RK800 and RK900 wanted to offer their presence as comfort to the man. Gavin still keeps forgetting that Richard is also close with Hank outside of work – maybe not as much as Connor, but they’re friends. Right after Richard’s awakening into deviancy, he lived with Connor and Hank for some time. Only after joining the DPD and getting his first pay, he rented a small apartment of his own. Living a few weeks at Anderson’s place must have brought them close enough for Richard to want to be with the man today. Gavin used to think that androids were just glorified walking smartphones but when Connor or Richard pull shit like that, well… Let’s just say it’s giving him a headache.

He finally turns to his terminal to try to focus on work but something glints in the corner of his eye and he’s sure there usually isn’t anything on his desk to give that effect. Curiously, he starts scanning the surface of his desk and he swiftly finds the culprit.

One of Richard’s coins. He must have left it there yesterday. They have ran out of the precinct in a hurry after connecting the dots in the evidence but it was still too late, the trail had run cold when they arrived. They went straight home afterwards and the coin was left forgotten here on Gavin's desk. (The funniest thing about their case from yesterday was how Gavin got a call at 2 a.m. from Paul from night shift who said he accidently came across their suspect because of a fucking noise complaint and she was already arrested. And Gavin thought he had bad luck!).

Gavin takes the coin into his hand and swears at it under his breath. So much ruckus with that little thing over the last couple of weeks.

He turns it in his fingers, watches the light play on its surface. He tries to mimic the position he’s seen the RKs start the knuckle trick with and puts the coin in motion. Of course, it bounces loudly to the surface on his desk and then rolls down to the floor – at this point Gavin is half-sure that thing is haunted and with a vendetta against him.

Gavin freezes, he knows the racket has drawn looks from other officers but fortunately they lose interest once they see nothing dangerous happened. Gavin leans down to gather the coin from the floor, when a pair of boots walks into his field of vision.

“Weren’t you yelling at Richard for playing with that just last week?” Tina snorts loudly and just as he expects, once he straightens with the coin secure in his hand, his friend is standing right there with a shit-eating grin curving her lips. “You’re such an asshole.”

“I see you bring breaking news as always,” he replies with a smirk of his own, leaning back in his chair.

Tina looks at Richard’s empty desk and nods at the coin in Gavin’s hand inquiringly. “Seriously, though, where’s he? You two have been joined by the hip recently.”

Gavin takes a breath to instinctively deny but he stops himself. Tina has fucking eyes and Gavin has been acting like a moron with a crush lately. She could probably recite a list of instances proving that so contradicting her isn’t a good choice probably. Shit, he’s pathetic.

“R. took a day off,” he says instead of adding more nails to his coffin. “What a lazy fucker,” he says with mock outrage.

“Oh no, will you have to file evidence yourself like a fuckin peasant, _like we all do_ , instead of having a walking computer do that for you? Aww, my heart goes out to you!” she puts her hand on her chest dramatically.

He kicks her playfully in response and she kicks him right back, much harder than he did.

“Okay, I’ll leave you to it then. Maybe you’ll actually get some work done without that eye-candy to distract you all the time,” she’s already walking away saying this and Gavin chokes on air for a second.

“You want to say that to my face, Tina?!”

“See you later, Gavin!” she sing-songs, waving without turning towards him.

For the rest of the day, Gavin finds himself looking up to Richard’s desk to either ask for something related to the case or simply share a joke, and he hates himself every time disappointment settles in his chest upon seeing an empty chair.

When Richard arrives at work the next day, Gavin is already sitting by his desk and he feels his treacherous heart make a happy flip at the sight of the android.

“Welcome back, R.,” Gavin says and he can’t stop the smile tugging at his lips. Richard stops by his desk and after giving him a surprised look, he reciprocates the smile.

“Good morning, Detective,” he says. “You seem to be uncharacteristically enthusiastic today.”

 _Because I missed you, you damned toaster._ But he won’t say that. He can’t.

“You weren’t there to complain about how much coffee I’m drinking yesterday so I may still be on the caffeine high,” he finishes the tease with a wink and immediately wants to punch himself in the face for that.

Richard raises an eyebrow at that, clearly amused. “Indeed.”

Gavin feels his ears burn in embarrassment and he looks away, escaping android’s gaze. His eyes fall on the coin still laying on his desk. He takes it into his hand and stands up to hand it to Richard.

“You seem to have lost something,” Gavin says smugly, stretching his hand out with the coin resting on the palm of his hand. Richard reaches for it and the tips of his fingers brush against Gavin’s skin. He pays that definitely much more attention than necessary.

Richard hums amusedly, staring at the coin between his fingers.

“I’m surprised, I must admit. After realizing I have left it in your space I was quite sure I’ll never see it again. Or if I do, it’ll be permanently glued to my desk or something other among these lines.”

“Aww, now I’m pissed I _didn’t_ glue it to your desk,” Gavin whines. “But come on, Fowler wants to see us. I’m sure you can’t wait to feed yourself some evidence after the break,” he says, playfully poking Richard on the side with his elbow.

Richard actually chuckles at that. His laughs are still a bit raw and bordering on the uncanny valley but Gavin counts it as a win every time he manages to cause one. He’s sure they’ll sound more natural once the android gets more practice.

When they’re passing by Hank’s and Connor’s desks, the RK800 is giving Gavin a knowing look with a smirk playing on his lips. Gavin flips him and starts walking faster. What the hell was that supposed to be about?!

(If the next day Richard finds a coin he “lost” at the end of their previous shift – trapped in a chunk of ice and slowly unfreezing in a DPD mug on his desk, well, he only has himself to blame for giving his partner ideas. Gavin knows it’s much more lame than the glue prank but it’s worth it to be unoriginal just to see Richard’s reaction – the look Gavin usually calls “a confused dog”, followed by a laugh that sounds just a little bit less raw than yesterday.)

 

 

**[+1]**

Gavin is not nervous, he has no reason to be nervous. It’s not like it’ll be the first time when he has to spend an evening working with Richard.

It is first time they’re going undercover to a nightclub, though.

Gavin nervously brushes a stray piece of thread off the cuff of his shirt that sticks out from under the sleeve of his jacket. He chose to wear a dark green button down that Tina helped him choose after declaring he looks like “sex on legs”. He believed her that time in the shop but now that he’s waiting under Richard’s building, he feels stupid for picking it tonight. It was a logical choice considering they’re going to a nightclub and they shouldn’t stand out but Gavin knows that’s not really why he chose to wear it.

He’s standing outside a waiting self-driving taxi, leaning on the vehicle as casually as he can. They decided not to take Gavin’s car as usual since he will probably have a drink or two to maintain cover. Richard asked to pick him up at his place but Gavin is actually too early and now he has too much time to overthink everything.

Finally, Richard exits the building and Gavin almost chokes on air at the sight. He’s got his usual black leather jacket but it’s unzipped and Gavin can clearly see that underneath he’s wearing a well-fitting dark blue v-neck. Gavin is so used to the android wearing these damned turtlenecks that the sight of his exposed pale neck makes Gavin feel a little light-headed. To make things _even worse_ and attract more attention to that sinful neck, he’s got a necklace of a small triangle stone on a piece of leather rope. His hair seem more dishevelled than what Gavin is used to seeing at work and his LED is gone.

This undercover job will be the death of him, Gavin decides then and there. Is this what Richard wears outside of work? Is this the sight Gavin deprived himself of when he dictated that first day they met that their partnership will be fully professional and they won’t become “best buddies like Hank and his tin friend”? Richard was honouring that wish, never even implying to spend time together outside of work, and Gavin has been regretting it for some time now… But this? This is like a punch in the face.

“Hello, Detective,” Richard says and there’s clear amusement in his tone. Gavin must have been staring at him like an idiot.

“Yeah, hi R., we going?” he answers eloquently.

Richard looks at the waiting vehicle next to Gavin and shakes his head. “We’re not taking a taxi.”

“But _you_ insisted I shouldn’t drive us there because…”

“Yes, I said that you shouldn't drive in case you drink tonight,” Richard interrupts him. “But _I’m_ not going to drink,” he smiles mischievously and Gavin’s stomach does a backflip once again. “Send the taxi away and follow me.”

Gavin has no choice but to listen to the android. They go to the back of Richard’s building and enter an underground garage. Gavin looks around, curious what kind of car does Richard have. He didn’t even know the android had one.

He stops in his tracks when Richard approaches a motorcycle. Gavin observes, frozen in place, as Richard takes out leather cropped riding gloves out of his pocket and puts them on. Suddenly, Gavin feels really _really_ hot in that garage. Richard doesn’t seem to notice the human’s crisis and simply hands him one of the helmets, then puts the other one on and throws his leg over the motorcycle to sit on it. By this point, Gavin’s blood is travelling in a really unadvisable direction.

“Come on, Detective, we don’t have all night.”

Gavin swallows and puts the helmet on. He takes a step towards the motorcycle and only then it truly hits him that he’s supposed to sit behind Richard and hold onto him the whole ride. This may be simultaneously the best and worst evening of his adult life.

He takes the seat behind the android and throws his arms around Richard tentatively.

“You should hold on tight,” Richard advises and puts his own hands on Gavin’s to modify the human’s grip and tighten the embrace. Gavin shudders at the touch and hates himself for it.

Gavin spends their journey simultaneously trying to will his body to behave and not make the whole situation fucking awkward and trying to enjoy the closeness to the android. He fails a bit at both, unfortunately. Lucky for him, the ride is not that long with the moderate distance and the speed at which Richard is driving.

The nightclub they’re going to is called Half-Moon and it’s been coming up more and more on DPD’s radar as a source for lots of Red Ice on the streets. They’ve been getting sloppy lately, though, probably too drunk on their success – dropping both bodies and information. If everything goes according to plan, some really important arrests should take place today.

Gavin almost jumps off the motorcycle once they arrive, he puts the helmet on his hurriedly vacated seat and rushes inside. He’s already waiting for his first drink when Richard joins him, taking a seat with his back leaning on the bar. The android’s hair is even more ruffled than before and Gavin really regrets he can’t get drunk right now. At least the riding gloves are gone for now. Gavin is sure he’ll dream about those tonight.

“Anyone of interest in sight?” Gavin asks, getting his head back into the game and joining Richard in scanning the crowd. Richard shakes his head, still focused on the people in front of him. Gavin pays for his drink when it’s done and takes a little sip. It’s overpriced but really good, sour and moderately alcoholic just like he asked. Too bad it's probably also his last. This is going to be a long night…

It takes them more than an hour to spot anyone useful, then establish contact, and actually start making progress. But _finally_ they’re being led to a private booth on the upper level of the club. It’s practically impossible to see it from the public part of Half-Moon and that explains why they had so much trouble locating their people of interest since they got here. Fortunately, they have hit the jackpot now and the person waiting for them at the booth is no other than Frank Lucardo, the man they hoped to meet tonight. If their intel is correct, he’s the man from the top of this cartel’s food chain.

Once they arrive, Lucardo looks up from the screen of his phone and gives them both a long assessing look. Then he smiles positively filthily at Gavin.

“Come on, gentlemen. Join me,” he says and clearly indicates for Gavin to sit close, patting the back of the seat next to him. Gavin decides to comply, if he plays it right, it can be used to their advantage.

They end up sitting on both sides of Lucardo, but while the android is perched right by the edge of the booth, Gavin is almost glued to the drug dealer. Lucardo isn’t bad looking per se, though not his usual type, so Gavin could easily play along to the man’s flirting. Today, however, it’s proving to be quite a feat. With Richard’s cold disapproving stare taking them both in from across the booth as Lucardo puts one of his arms around Gavin’s shoulders and his hand on the detective’s knee… Gavin shivers and it’s caused by a weird mixture of becoming slightly alarmed by Lucardo’s bold advances and being under Richard’s intense scrutiny. Fortunately, Lucardo interprets it as complementary to him.

“You don’t seem like a shy type,” Lucardo comments, looking at Gavin with one eyebrow raised.

“I’m just rusty, it’s been a while since I’ve _indulged_ ,” Gavin replies truthfully and sees that the dealer buys it. “All work and no play for me,” he smiles teasingly and hopes it turns out flirty. It’s hard to be sweet to the man when there’s cold sweat running down Gavin’s spine at the very thought of hitting on their suspect in front of his damned crush.

“Ah yes, work. I assume you’re here on business?”

Lucardo’s hand that found its way onto Gavin’s knee starts moving, slowly stroking his thigh, up and down, up and down… Gavin is simply thankful for Richard’s presence as he takes over with the ruse and starts talking with Lucardo about a big potential buy of “merchandise”. Though it’s most probable that Gavin could handle all this if only the android actually _wasn’t_ here. Gavin has flirted with marks before, he was good at it. But now, knowing Richard is witnessing all this, it suddenly feels humiliating and he’s acting like a teenager that went to a club with a fake ID for the first time and is shocked he’s getting any attention. The only good thing is that Lucardo actually seems into it, how Gavin stumbles over his words when he tries to speak and how he’s squirming under Lucardo’s touches. Good he’s so full of himself that he doesn’t realize that it’s all more of a discomfort than anything else.

Gavin starts visualising running over Lucardo with his car to get himself together. It helps a bit.

That’s when Gavin notices that Richard has taken out his coin and started playing with it, his forearms resting on the table. It doesn’t look like one of the tricks he does to calibrate when processing data, it’s more like… fidgeting. Is the android nervous? Why would he be? Everything is going quite smoothly mission-wise.

Lucardo is opening up more and more to their business propositions. Richard is recording his every word, expertly nudging the dealer to spill something that would work as airtight evidence — to preferably convince Lucardo to show them the actual drugs. Gavin is always amused how the RKs can work their negotiation software so damn well but then be so awkward in situations needing basic social skills.

“Well I can see who’s the brain and who’s the looks of this little duo of yours,” Lucardo laughs after one of Richard’s spot-on remarks. His face is so close to Gavin’s that the detective can feel his hot breath on his cheek. Gavin grips the edge of the seat so hard it hurts in order not to punch the dealer before they have everything they need.

“I advise you not to insult my partner if you want this business concluded,” Richard retorts coldly, the threat plain in his voice. Gavin feels like weeping from the onslaught of conflicting emotions – on the one hand are Lucardo’s disgusting advances and on the other Richard defending him with passion Gavin rarely sees in the android. He knows it’s all part of their little play-pretend to assert dominance over their target but fuck if it doesn’t feel good to believe for a moment that Richard cares this much.

“Oh, come on, I would never. I’m a _big fan_ of your partner,” Lucardo doesn’t seem fazed.

“If you say so then why don’t we wrap the business up already and you’ll _show me_ how much of a fan you are?” Gavin chimes in, his voice seductive and one of his hands moving to rest on the dealer’s knee, mirroring Lucardo’s earlier move. He really wishes this will speed things along and they’ll be done with this bullshit soon.

Unfortunately, that’s when someone from Lucardo’s entourage disturbs them.

“Boss, there’s something,” the man says once he stops in front of the booth and the dealer seems quite pissed at the interruption.

“This better be important, Johnny,” he warns as he starts getting up. He purposefully brushes against as much of Gavin as possible as he exits the booth and joins his man. Brief, hushed conversation takes place – Gavin wishes the android is able to hear anything more than him but judging from the sour look on his perfect face, the music from the lower part of the club is too much.

Lucardo dismisses Johnny and joins them back at the booth but he doesn’t bother squeezing over Gavin again to get back to his previous place, he takes a seat next to the detective that blocks his escape route. Gavin just hopes he won’t need an escape route. Lucardo’s hand is soon back on Gavin’s leg, squeezing this time more than stroking.

“You know, Johnny just brought me some hot info that I think may spice up our business,” he says and before Gavin has a chance to ask what it is, Lucardo swiftly takes a gun out of the back of his trousers and aims it at the detective’s chest. _Fuck_.

Lucardo tells Richard not to move his hands but Gavin can’t tear his eyes off the barrel aimed at his heart. He assumes the android complies as there are no more comments about that.

“You arrested one of my bouncers once, he remembered your pretty face, Mr Reed,” Lucardo reveals with clear amusement. “He waited to see whether you’re here for some actual fun or maybe snooping around. Well…”

“It’s _Detective_ Reed, you dipshit,” Gavin barks back because he can’t help it. Lucardo’s hand squeezes his thigh once again but this time in warning. Gavin hopes Richard has already called for backup.

“Listen, there’s no need to be hostile. We can still do some _business._ Let’s just move this discussion somewhere less crowded,” the dealer says and his attention turns back to Richard. “You, put your hands up.”

Gavin finally manages to move his gaze to look at his partner, just as Lucardo’s gun moves away from his chest and towards Richard. The android is slowly rising his arms from the table just like he was ordered to. Something silver glints between the android’s fingers on his right side and Gavin frowns. Why hasn’t he dropped that fucking coin?

Then suddenly Richard’s movements become too fast to be human and the silver glint crosses the air towards Gavin after the android does something complicated with his hands. Gavin instinctively follows the coin, just like that time that ended with him getting coffee in his eyes. Tonight isn’t that different but instead of coffee, it’s blood that sprays his face.

Lucardo lets out a hollow severed scream that's swallowed by the music and then limply slides down his seat. The gun clatters to the floor.

“Did you just…?!”

Gavin’s stare keeps shifting between the dead dealer bleeding profusely from his eye and the android that looks far too satisfied for the detective’s liking. Gavin shifts in his seat and realizes that after all of the Lucardo’s repulsing flirting, his cock decided to reawaken to appreciate how Richard killing someone with a coin was beyond weirdly hot.

The fuck is his life.

Fortunately for Gavin, he doesn’t have much time to ponder on this as that’s when their backup arrives and all hell breaks loose. It’s all a blur from then, fists, punches, and knocked out guns. Richard stays by his side throughout the fight and for a moment, Gavin lets the action and adrenaline put his mind in the survival mode and make everything else stop to matter. Somehow, when everything ends with still quite successful arrests and an enormous stash of Red Ice found in the basement, Gavin has only few bruises and a lightly bleeding nose; it’s not even broken this time.

He lets the medic on site do a check up on him and once his nose stops bleeding, Gavin finds the nearest abandoned alley and enters its shadows, leaning heavily on a wall. He needs to cool off. Adrenaline mixed with remnants of arousal is still running through his veins and Gavin needs to calm the fuck down.

“Detective?” Richard enters the alley and Gavin’s heart speeds up again. He feels a sudden need to smoke a cigarette even though he quit years ago.

Richard approaches him and stands a step away from the detective.

“Are you alright?”

“Sure, just needed a breath, it became crowded over there,” he shrugs.

Richard's hand rises to the collar of Gavin's shirt and rubs the cloth between his fingers, regarding the blood stains with a frown.

“Most of that isn't mine,” Gavin murmurs just to say something because Richard is _so close_ he can't focus properly. “But you know that, it's mostly your doing,” he raises an eyebrow playfully. “You really get too much fun with that coin these days.”

“You seem to have _immensely_ enjoyed some parts of the evening as well,” Richard's voice becomes a bit teasing as he pointedly looks down towards Gavin's crotch.

He _knows_ , Gavin realizes with dread. _Of course_ he knows _,_ he's a fuckin state-of-the-art investigative android with fucking bioscanners.

“Well, Lucardo was quite attractive,” Gavin bubbles defensively even though he hated the man's attention, but at least it’s an excuse.

Richard's hand moves from his collar to squeeze his shoulder.

“Don't lie to me, Gavin,” he says and Gavin feels instantly guilty. He actually promised not to lie to his partner ever again after that one nasty case. But that time, he must admit it himself, he _was_ an idiot for not telling Richard the truth when he asked if Gavin was alright and the human said he was totally fine, taking advantage of the android’s destroyed optical unit that messed with his scanners. And then continued to slowly bleed out from a stab wound up until they got their hands on the suspect and Gavin allowed himself to black out in peace. Richard was furious and Gavin promised to always be truthful.

But how can he not lie _now_ when he went and developed a crush on the android? What other choice does he have? He can't simply admit to it, he doesn't have any hopes that it would be reciprocated. He _knows_ his mood swings are enough to discourage anyone from trying to get closer to him so why a perfect android like Richard would be interested? And Gavin doesn't want to lose the working relationship they have. After they stopped jumping at each other’s throats, they became a good duo. Gavin never had a partner he worked so well with and career is still everything he has. But now that he developed these _feelings_ or whatever the fuck was happening to him, it may ruin everything.

“Richard, just…” Gavin is looking everywhere but at the android’s face. “Leave it be, okay? Just forget about this and move on… We have paperwork to do…”

“Look at me, Gavin,” Richard responds instead. His voice is soft and pleading and Gavin does just that. The moment he locks his eyes with Richard’s grey ones, his heart starts beating even faster, he can now hear it pounding in his ears.

The android’s hand moves from his shoulder to cup Gavin’s cheek and his breath hitches at the touch. Why is Richard teasing him this way? 

“You can sometimes be really dumb for such a smart person, you know,” Richard says and Gavin is already forming a scathing response but he never gets to voice it, because the next moment there are soft lips brushing against his and his head spins.

Everything else ceases to exist and the only focus of Gavin’s whole being is the warm hand brushing his cheek and Richard _kissing him_. When Gavin finally reciprocates, his lips moving in tow with Richard’s and his hands raising to rest on the back of the android’s neck, he feels Richard smile and close the remaining distance between their bodies. Gavin’s body gets caged between the wall and his partner and he never felt so good. Richard deepens the kiss, his tongue sliding along Gavin’s lower lip before entering his mouth and Gavin lets out a muffled moan.

This has no right to feel this good, a simple kiss in a filthy alley behind a nightclub, but Gavin feels himself melting in the android’s embrace. After the rollercoaster of emotions that was (and still is) today’s evening, Gavin’s body seems ready to surrender itself to the bliss of Richard’s kisses and touches to relieve all the stress and strain.

Gavin feels light-headed when they part. He rests his forehead on Richard’s shoulder, breathing a little heavily, and successfully avoiding the android’s gaze.

“You sure about this, R.?” he blurts out because he’s an idiot but he _needs_ to know if this is a one-time thing fuelled by adrenaline or…

“About what?”

“About _this,_ me, kissing me,” Gavin almost spits out the last two words, nerves tightening his throat. “Getting _involved_ with me…” he knows he’s talking gibberish but he’s always been better at interrogating other people and sucked at opening up himself. “You know who I am, what kind of person I am…”

“Yes, Gavin, I know who you are,” Richard responds and there’s no revulsion in his voice, as Gavin half-expects, but a dose of endearment. The android puts a hand under Gavin’s chin and makes him look up, their eyes meeting again. Richard looks ready to say something more but then a third voice joins from the side.

“Hey sweethearts, you’re still needed here!” Tina yells at them from the entrance to the alley. She sounds beyond amused and when Gavin literally jumps at her words, she snorts loudly. Both he and Richard take a step back and for a moment just stay there, frozen.

“We’ll talk about this later?” Richard says and Gavin nods.

Gavin takes a deep breath to ground himself and starts walking towards Tina. He still feels a little high on adrenaline… and on Richard.

The android walks straight into the middle of the action, asking how can he be of further assistance. Gavin is following him much slower, still greedily breathing in the cold air to clear his mind. Tina joins him by his side and punches him playfully in his shoulder.

“I see the arrest wasn’t the only success tonight,” she grins and he feels his ears heating up. “I’ve never been with an android,” she confesses suddenly. “What’s it like to make out with them? Are their tongues soft or more like sucking on a tv remote?” she wonders out loud and Gavin stops in his tracks. She sounds genuinely curious but she’s making him think about the kiss again and how it already was one of the best Gavin has had in his life and how he’s not even sure whether he’ll ever get to feel Richard’s _exquisite,_ thank you very much, tongue again.

“I will strangle you with my bare hands, Chen.”

Tina ceases her walk as well and turns to size him up. She squints her eyes, staring at him for a moment.

“Are you going to have a breakdown about snogging an android right now? I know it’s been years since your gay awakening but I guess it can’t be that different, you should know how to deal with this.”

Gavin can’t help it and snorts at her. But on the inside he’s still freaking out – not about his android-hater turned android-fucker thing, though. He’s been coming to terms with that for weeks. But he’s positively panicking about having the rest of that conversation he started with Richard in the alley.

Tina must see through him because she gives him another friendly punch on the shoulder and turns her voice from teasing to something more tender.

“You know he’s crazy about you, right?”

No, actually, Gavin _doesn’t_ know that. He _can’t_ know that because the notion is simply ridiculous.

“No, he’s _not_.”

Tina sighs. “You two really need to wrap things up here asap and then go have a talk and fuck each other’s brains out, in whatever order you prefer.”

Gavin shakes his head at her.

“Yeah, I do have some actual work to do. Make yourself useful, too,” he waves at her dismissively.

“Sure thing, _Detective Reed_ ,” she replies sarcastically but she does walk away to find something to do.

Gavin puts himself into full work-mode as well to survive the rest of the evening without overthinking everything. They manage to fill in the paperwork that’s necessary for now, give all the vital statements, and transfer everyone arrested at the club to their cells where they’ll wait to be interrogated tomorrow.

It’s the middle of the night when they’re finally free but the moment Gavin realizes what comes next, the exhaustion leaves him to be replaced with a mix of excitement and anxiety.

“Your place or mine?” Richard asks as they’re walking towards his motorcycle. His tone is casual, it could mean they’re just going to talk tonight but Gavin can’t help but read it as a potential promise of something more.

“Mine, my cat doesn’t like it when I leave her alone at night for so long,” Gavin says truthfully.

Richard gives a small smile at that and then hands Gavin one of the helmets but doesn’t let go of it once the other man has it in his grasp. Instead he tugs at it to push Gavin closer and then use the momentum to lean in for a short but passionate kiss. Gavin lets out a surprised groan but reciprocates it greedily.

It ends all too soon but when Gavin looks up once they part, Richard’s bright eyes promise more to come later. “Let’s go.”

They both take a seat on the motorcycle and this time Gavin doesn’t hesitate to put his hands tightly around the android in front of him.

He doesn’t think he’s going to let go of Richard anytime soon. Preferably never.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m sorry I bullshitted some of the cases they’re working on but coming up with these is hard and when I finally make up something legit I want to keep it for more case-driven fics XD
> 
> There’s a really high probability there’s going to be more of these two within this “universe” as I’ve already came up with two spin-offs to this – I couldn’t put everything here to at least keep some of the 5+1 format but the ideas just kept on coming. If you're interested, you can already subscribe to the series, though I'm not really sure when anything new will be published ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> I appreciate all feedback, comments are a writer's fuel <3
> 
> You can find me on [tumblr](http://missmho.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/hoodedmiho) if you want to talk about garbage ships


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